In a major development, the Tata Steel members voted by 90.80 percent in favour of a resolution to remove Nusli Wadia from the office of the director of the company, with immediate effect. The resolution was passed in Mumbai in the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held yesterday.

Nusli Wadia had stayed away from the EGM of Tata Steel on Wednesday. In a statement, read out at the meeting, Wadia accused Tata Sons of stage-managing the EGMs by restricting the entry of dissenters and allowing only selected persons to speak. As such, he he did not want to be present at the meeting.

While the EGM was called to vote on removing Cyrus Mistry as director, this was not necessary as Mistry resigned from the board on Monday. He was removed as chairman of Tata Sons on October 24 after which there have been exchanges of accusations between Mistry and Tata Sons.

After resigning from the boards of six companies on Monday, Mistry, on Tuesday, moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking protection against mismanagement by Tata Sons and oppression of minority shareholders.

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In contrast to the EGM of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which was held last week, where shareholders aupported Mistry and spoke against the Tatas, the EGM of Tata Steel saw most shareholders —many of them employees from the plant at Jamshedpur.

BB Nankani, a shareholder of Tata Steel since the late 1980s, told FE that the meeting “resembles political parties bringing in paid cheerleaders to their rallies”. “My money has gone down the drain because of Ratan Tata’s decision to acquire Corus,” Nankani said.

Reacting to his removal, Nusli Wadia said that false and baseless allegations were made in statement by Tata Sons supporting resolution to seek his removal. The chairman of the Wadia Group also added that he had outlined events relating to some key decisions of board, most important of all is Tata Motors’ ill-conceived investment in NANO.

Delay in closure of NANO is a drain on the finances of the company, it has created a very negative image of PVB of company, he further said.